Some basic questions

[Snacktime]

From a relative noob:

1) I'm confused by shape shifting pretenders. Number one, what items can they carry? in dragon form I have different item slots than in human form. Do the items only work in one form or the other?

Why does my dragon sometimes stay in dragon form after battle? When he does this how can i get him to switch back to human form so I have better magic levels?

Also I think it's kind of confusing how when I choose a dragon pretender it gives me a human one and all my numbers (i.e. starting magic paths, dominion etc) change. But maybe that's just a gripe.

2) do the new nations in the patches have nation-specific spells? is there a list of these somewhere?

3) my SCs get an awful lot of afflictions awfully fast. Am I doing something wrong? Does my pretender have any special way to heal his own afflictions?

Thanks everyone!